Monday, January 21, 2013

Tuesday's Overlooked TV: Bizarre

As you'll see, I've changed the name of the feature from Tuesday's Forgotten to Tuesday's Overlooked, which is the true name of the multi-blog meme. I've changed it to that it's more uniform with the other blogs that participate. This week's feature is the early 80s sketch comedy series Bizarre.

Bizarre starred comedian John Byner and a steady cast of underlings and was similar in vein to Saturday Night Live or SCTV, if not as good as those series at their best. Also, whereas those series were more ensemble based, Bizarre was clearly a vehicle for Byner. An uncensored version of the series aired on the Showtime cable network, while a censored version aired on CTV in Canada, (where the show was produced) and in broadcast syndication here in the US (which is where I saw it as a kid, on WPHL-TV Channel 17).

The show was certainly not high art; it was crude, crass, and rude, but had its funny moments. Although the series isn't exactly considered a classic, it did spawn a greater spin-off success. The series gave birth to the character "Super" Dave Osbourne, a spoof of daredevils such as Evel Knievel. The character's appearances became so popular that a spin-off series was created for the USA cable network and even a kids cartoon series for the Fox network.

Here is Byner in one of his recurring Bizarre roles, "pet evangelist" Dr. Enzlo Veal. Thanks!

4 comments:

Was it censored for CTV? CBC wasn't censoring language nor mild nudity at least by the '90s...wonder when and if the commercial nets up north joined them...watching RIPPER STREET on BBC America, with the aureoles blurred out on women's breasts, but all the occasional gore utterly in the clear, makes it somehow doubly ugly...

In the States, yes, for that last, and perhaps in some of the other more sexually repressed areas. I think the nudity and sexuality is less likely to be censored in some countries (Scandinavian? other European? Canada?) than is particularly grim violence...at least in over-the-air broadcast.

I remember watching Bizarre with my dad on occasions where he let me or just didn't care. Strangely, the only two bits I remember are The Bigot Family and one where John Byner scales a very tall ladder for nearly a minute...then pulls out a rubber glove and tells an off-screen "Mr. Abdul-Jabbar" to turn his head and cough.